Baldr,
son of Óðin, and the most gentle and most loved of
the gods, suffered from nightmares. The Æsir, in counsel,
could not unravel Baldr's dreams.

Óðin himself decided
to travel to Niflheim, the realm of the dead, to consult a seeress.
Óðin used his powers to raise the seeress from the
dead. Óðin asked her four questions and learned that
Höðr would slay Baldr with a fatal branch and that Váli
would take vengeance on Höðr. With the fourth question,
the seeress recognized her interrogator and refused to answer
further. Óðin returned to Ásgarð with a
heavy heart.

The gods and goddesses thought of all the things that might harm
Baldr. His mother, Frigg, traveled the nine worlds and convinced
each and every thing to swear an oath not to harm Baldr. The gods
made sport of testing Baldr's new safety. They threw darts and
hacked with axes, but nothing could harm Baldr.

Loki was envious of Baldr. In the shape of an old woman, he learned from Frigg that she had
missed one thing: the little harmless mistletoe bush. Loki found
a mistletoe bush and turned a branch of it into a sharpened dart.

Returning
to the company of the gods, Loki found them throwing missiles
against Baldr in sport. To one side was Höðr, Baldr's
blind brother. Loki asked Höðr why he wasn't joining
in the sport. Höðr said he had no dart, nor could he
see to shoot it. Loki gave Höðr the mistletoe dart, and
guided Höðr's hand to throw the dart at Baldr.

The dart flew through the hall and struck Baldr. It pierced him and
passed right through him. Baldr fell over on his face. He was
dead.

The grief of the Æsir was bottomless; their silence was
deafening. They knew who was responsible for the death of Baldr.
Höðr could not see their fearsome gaze, and Loki could
not withstand it. He fled.

Goddesses began to wail and weep. Óðin was the most
affected, since he alone knew the extent of the loss they had
suffered and the sorrow and pain that would follow his son's death.

Frigg
begged for someone to ride to the kingdom of the dead to bring
Baldr back. Hermóðr, another of Óðin's sons,
agreed to make the trip. Óðin provided his horse Sleipnir
for the journey.

Meanwhile,
Baldr's body was laid on a funeral pyre built on his ship, Hringhorni.
Baldr's wife, Nanna, died on the spot from grief, and she, too,
was laid on the pyre. Baldr's horse was killed and laid alongside him. Óðin took off his magic golden
armring, Draupnir,
one of the great treasures of the gods, and put it on Baldr's
arm. So doing, he leaned down and whispered into his dead son's
ear. The pyre was lit, and the ship pushed off into the sea.

For
nine nights, Hermóðr rode down the dark road to the
land of the dead until he came to the bridge Gjallarbrú over the river Gjöll.
Móđguđr, the maiden who guarded of the bridge, noticed that the bridge
creaked more under Hermóðr than when five battalions of dead
men crossed the day before, and concluded that Hermóðr was not yet dead. She
asked what Hermóðr wanted in the land of the dead and confirmed
that Baldr had crossed the bridge earlier.

Hermóðr rode until until he came to the gates
of the land of the dead. He spurred Sleipnir on, and the horse jumped
completely over the gate.

Hermóðr came to the hall of Hel, daughter of Loki,
and ruler of the kingdom of the dead. Hel's face and body are
those of a beautiful woman, but her thighs and legs are those
of a corpse, mottled and moldering. Hel was willing to release
Baldr on the condition that all things in the world, living or
dead, would weep for him. Should any creature refuse to weep,
then Baldr must stay with Hel and never return to the Æsir.
Hermóðr took his leave of Hel and bade farewell to
Baldr and Nanna, who gave him many gifts, including Draupnir,
to give to the Æsir.

On Hermóð's return to Ásgarð, the Æsir
sent out messengers to all the nine worlds. All things did indeed
weep for Baldr: men and beasts, stone and metal, in the way that
these things weep when they are covered with frost and begin to
thaw.

The
messengers of the Æsir came to a giantess alone in a cave.
When they asked her to weep for Baldr, she replied, "Alive
or dead, the old man's son has been no use to me. Let Hel hold
what she has." Despite entreaties, the giantess would neither
weep, nor say another word. The Æsir had no doubt that the
giantess was Loki in disguise, seeking in his malice to keep Baldr
with Hel.

The Norse code of conduct required Óðin to avenge the
death of his son Baldr. Using trickery and magic against an unwilling
Rind, Óðin sired with her a son named Váli.
The infant grew rapidly from the first moment of his birth. On
the first night of his life, before he had even combed his hair
or washed his hands, Váli came to Ásgarð and
slew Höðr with an arrow.

One of the great mysteries of the Norse stories,
and the subject of much speculation is the question: what did
Óðin whisper in Baldr's ear?

The poem Völuspá tells that Baldr's
mother, Frigg, wept not for Baldr, but for Valhöll's woe.
She recognized, as did Óðin, that the death of Baldr presaged the
death of the gods at Ragnarök.

The story of Baldr's death is very old. Images on gold bracteates from the 6th
century illustrate the story of his death.